


maybe it's 'cause i'm wearing your cologne

by rosewitchx



Series: pete and aaron vs the world [7]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Alcohol, Coffee Shops, Drunken Kissing, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Jealousy, M/M, Mj is a lesbian and shes fuckin TIRED of peters shit, Nothing explicit, Overprotective, Pet Names, Pre-Canon, Redemption, Rivalry, Secret Identity, Sexy Times, Teasing, Wakes & Funerals, You Know Who Dies, mj is fucking badass bitch!, okay now that we got that out of the way, these tags are a mess, theyre gay and stupid., turning saints into the sea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 17:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18526672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosewitchx/pseuds/rosewitchx
Summary: “do you think i can get her, like, really mad,” he asks instead.pete’s lovey-dovey expression immediately falls. “aaron,” he warns him, “don’t youdare.”he dares.--or, a look into mj and aaron's relationship.





	maybe it's 'cause i'm wearing your cologne

**Author's Note:**

> lol okay so this started as "aaron is petty to mj" but evolved into like light angst because everything i touch turns into pain and suffering. lol

“mj doesn’t like you a lot,” peter says.

they’re walking back home from a dinner out, arms hooked together, when peter tells him this. it’s not like aaron hadn’t noticed the way the woman looked at him, eyes spilling poison; he’s just surprised  _ peter  _ had noticed. he’s always had a soft spot for her, her childhood best friend, so it makes aaron feel weird, at the very least. “you think so?,” he says, carefully.

“yeah.” peter sighs, leaning his head against aaron’s shoulder. the streets are never really empty, not in new york, but they’re certainly not as crowded as they usually are, so they take their time. “i don’t know why...”

“maybe it’s ‘cause i’m a  _ super _ villain.” he can’t help the grin that creeps up his face when peter laughs at his joke. 

“she doesn’t  _ know  _ that.”

aaron highly doubts that. mary jane watson isn’t so well-known in the underside of their world just because she has a pretty face and a couple of photos with spider-man. no, she’s known for singlehandedly taking down the maggia, she’s known for uncovering oscorp’s illegal symbiote experiments. mj is a terrifying force to reckon with, he knows so from experience. “sure she doesn’t,” he says. 

pete pouts.  _ he’s so cute,  _ aaron thinks.  _ thinking she hasn’t him all figured out.  _ “i just wish she could see what i see.”

“and  _ what  _ do you see, exactly, pete?” his long list of defects, his evildoings, his unforgivable sins? 

peter’s fingers curl up around his own, hesitant. “you know,” he says. “i just see  _ you. _ ”

(something skips in aaron’s chest, something warm, and it’s been happening more and more often whenever pete’s around, but he absolutely  _ refuses  _ to dwell too much on it.)

“do you think i can get her, like, really mad,” he asks instead.

pete’s lovey-dovey expression immediately falls. “aaron,” he warns him, “don’t you  _ dare. _ ”

 

he dares.

 

it begins a few evenings later. they’re hanging out at aaron’s, maybe a little too drunk on beers and wine, peter sitting on his lap, when mary jane calls him. peter fumbles to get the phone out.

“lol,” he says, laughing. “it’s em-jay.”

“answer her,” aaron tells him. his breath tickles his ear. he can feel peter’s heartbeat quicken next to him as his fingers slide through the screen.

“ _ pete? _ ”

“hi, mj,” he giggles. he’s so childish, sometimes. “what’s poppin’?”

“ _ nothing, just… had a bad feeling, is all. _ ”

(aaron wonders if that has anything to do with the slur of his voice.)

he slides a hand up peter’s shirt and rejoices when he bites his lip, glancing at him. he raises an eyebrow at him, amused.  _ keep going. _

“yeah, um,” peter says, “i’m at aaron’s right now.”

a pause: aaron can  _ feel  _ the annoyance in mary jane’s voice when she speaks again. “ _ alright, _ ” she says.

aaron’s lips meet peter’s clavicle and start going up his jugular as peter stutters out an answer. he’s struggling, now. (aaron loves it.)

“i’m also a bit drunk,” he admits. “it’s- it’s fun, you know.”

“ _ mm-hm. _ ” 

(aaron knows just how much peter needs to drink to get drunk, and he’s aware mj must know too. he revels in the satisfaction it brings him.)

“ _ just be safe, okay, _ ” she tells him. aaron nibs at peter’s neck and he inhales shakily.

“sure,” he says. “always am.”

peter hangs up, and later, laying on his bed, peter below him, aaron thrives in the knowledge of mary jane’s fuming expression for just a moment as he dives in.

 

mj leans in for a resigned hug and aaron’s smile isn’t entirely fake. 

peter laughs as they fall apart from their greeting, completely unaware of the tension between them. or maybe a little  _ too  _ aware, it seems, if the stiffness of his smile is anything to go by. “it’s been a while,” he says, leaning in for a kiss on her cheek. “how’ve you been?”

she squints at aaron, as if trying to piece something together. he just leans closer to peter and smiles innocently. 

“i’ve been great,” she says. 

(aaron holds peter’s hand, confident in the knowledge that she can smell his cologne on him.)

 

mj looks through peter’s phone and her finger freezes over aaron’s chat.

“ _ honey dear _ ,” she reads. “seriously?”

“what?”

“you have  _ pet names. _ ”

“yeah,” peter says, like it’s obvious. he dips the tiny brush into the bottle of polish and keeps painting on her left hand. “he has me as ‘ _ pretty boy _ , so, like.” 

“that is literally the single most disgusting thing i’ve ever heard and i’ve  _ disinfected your poisoned wounds before. _ ”

“i don’t get it.” peter pauses and then shuffles on the couch, looking at his friend. “he’s not  _ that  _ bad, why don’t you like him?” he scrunches up his nose. “man, this smells so strong.”

“sorry about that.” she smiles apologetically, then sighs. ”it’s not that i  _ don’t  _ like him,” mj starts, then pauses. “nah, you’re right. i don’t like him. it’s just… i don’t know. i get this  _ vibe _ about him. he’s  _ bad. _ ”

“he’s  _ not— _ “ peter catches himself. mj looks at him, unimpressed. 

“you know you can’t lie to me, right.”

peter deflates. “i know…”

“seriously, man. you kept being spider-man from me for like, a  _ month.  _ you thought i wouldn’t figure out who he is?  _ really? _ ”

“i’m sorry, alright?”

mj doesn’t reply. they remain in silence for what feels like forever. 

“why do  _ you _ like him?,” she suddenly asks.

peter stays quiet, thinking, for a while. then he says, “it’s a lot,” and avoids her eyes. “he’s nice. he— he  _ gets it,  _ you know. this whole thing. and it’s  _ fun,  _ doing it, he helps me out a lot. he’s the sweetest guy, and i just… i don’t know. i don’t think i’ve ever felt this way before.”

“i’m just worried he might want something else out of you. you’ve always been too much of a romantic. remember flash?”

“okay, that’s cheating. flash was— was a blip, okay—“

“and harry?”

“it’s not my fault his dad is a giant dragon—“

“and eddie?”

“he went abroad, that wasn’t that bad—“

“he has an  _ alien  _ inside that tried to  _ kill you! _ ”

“he got me ice cream afterwards!”

“what i’m saying is, pete,” she says, “you have a tendency to getting your heart broken. i’m not sure aaron won’t end like that either.”

“oh, mj.” she hates feeling vulnerable. she knows peter can tell. “hey. i’ll be okay. i’m not gonna fall apart on you.” she knows he won’t. that’s not what she’s afraid of. he’ll just build thicker walls around his heart. “i can take care of myself, okay?”

she knows he can. but she’s also sat with him at midnight, she’s watched him cry and she’s patched him back together more times than she can count. she knows there must be a limit to just how much her best friend can handle. 

but she doesn’t voice this. she smiles at her best friend, heart of gold, and mentally sharpens her sword. 

 

peter strips off his suit and laughs as he steps into the bathroom. “babe, can you get me some clean clothes?”

aaron’s laying on their bed already, so he groans when he hears his request. “you’re serious, man?”

“please?” he hears the shower turn on, and then peter shouts, “thank you, sweetie!”

“you’re lucky you’re hot,” he grumbles in reply, completely sure peter can hear him. he gets up, heads towards pete’s drawer. he’ll probably steal one of aaron’s shirts, so he just gives him one already (he can’t help but feel warm about the thought). he gets underwear and he’s swifting through his bottom drawer when he spots it: an old pair of worn  _ hi kitten  _ sweatpants. “holy shit.”

when peter finally gets out of the shower, he’s in boxers and aaron’s stolen shirt, holding the sweatpants close to his heart. “dude, where did you find these?”

“they were in the drawer,” aaron laughs. peter flops onto the bed and feels the pants between his fingers. “why do you even  _ have  _ those?”

“mj gave them to me,” he says, smiling fondly. “we were, like, nineteen? i haven’t seen these in a while. she also got me those jeans? the ones you like.”

“oh,” aaron says. 

he turns away from peter. 

“wait,” the hero says, a moment later. “are you  _ jealous _ ?”

“goodnight, pete.”

“you’re jealous! of mj! holy shit!”

“i said  _ goodnight,  _ parker,” aaron repeats. 

“we are so talking about this tomorrow,” peter says, and he reaches over and turns off the nightlamp. 

they do not talk about it. 

 

peter goes ahead with a skip in his step, leaning against the coffee shop’s counter. mary jane looks at his easy smile, and can’t help but sigh when she faces ahead again, eyes crossing aaron’s.

“so,” he says. “how’s life?”

she can see the machinations going inside his head, can hear his thoughts clanking against his skull. she looks down at the empty table, and pulls out her laptop. “nothing much,” she says, meeting aaron’s gaze once more. “doing some research on the prowler.”

his facade doesn’t fall. interesting. “good luck,” he tells her. “heard he’s a tricky one.”

“not as much as he hopes to be, surely.”

they remain in silence as her laptop boots up. she opens up her latest research (not really on the prowler, but on kingpin himself; pete had asked her a favor) and begins typing away.

“what’s your goal here,” aaron suddenly says. she looks up from her screen: he’s examining her like she’s a piece of ancient technology. “are you so in love with him that you can’t  _ stand  _ the thought of him with someone he actually likes?”

she keeps typing. “he might like you, but do  _ you? _ ”

“of course i do,” he says. it sounds too much like a lie to mj. “haven’t you heard our calls?”

( _ peter whimpering against something. aaron laughs. mary jane hangs up. _ )

( _ peter whimpering against her kitchen counter. she inserts the needle into his arm, shoots in the antidote harry had fetched for them. _ )

“i have,” mj says. her eyes remain glued to the screen, but she isn’t typing anymore. “what exactly do you want from him? a good time? information? a bit of both? i’ll let you know he doesn’t work that way.”

“oh, i know,” aaron says. “he’s like a  _ tomb. _ ”

“listen,” mary jane tells him, a calm fury creeping into her voice. “i’ll only say this one time. i don’t  _ care  _ what it is you  _ think  _ you’re doing, trying to— i don’t know, make me jealous? i have a girlfriend, aaron.” he opens his mouth to speak, but she quickly silences him. “i have seen pete cry over and over again over people who  _ didn’t  _ deserve him. i have seen him sell his soul for men who’d rather watch it burn. that man wears his heart on his sleeve and will shove it into the direction of  _ anyone  _ that gives him a sliver of stability. and if you turn out to have any ulterior motives — if you  _ dare hurt peter parker,  _ you’ll understand just why i’m the only one left after all this time.”

aaron doesn’t reply. she glances to the counter: peter’s talking to the barista, happily. she returns to her work, but for some reason she can’t focus on it any longer. 

“you really care about him,” aaron says. it’s not a question. 

“obviously,” she replies. 

“good. he… he needs more people like that.”

is that vulnerability, just a trace of it, hidden in his voice? why can’t he meet her eyes now?

“i’m back,” peter says, dropping the tray of muffins and coffee on the table. aaron returns to his facade, wraps an arm around peter and she watches as he laughs. he’s happy, she realizes. 

all sympathy with aaron is lost the second they basically start eating each other out right there and then, much to her chagrin. 

 

(his words stick to her almost as much as peter’s hands to her ceiling.)

 

(they stick to her for years.)

 

they stand, side by side, at a graveyard. it’s peter’s birthday. it’s peter’s  _ last  _ birthday. harry’s on his way and eddie’s just left, having giving her and aunt may his condolences. 

“you were there,” she asks him, trembling, when they’re left alone for a moment. “weren’t you?”

aaron hasn’t looked at her in all morning. “i warned him,” he says. “i told him— mj, i—“

she doesn’t look at him, either. “i know,” she snaps. she takes in a deep breath: calm down, mj. “what are you gonna do now?”

“my job,” aaron replies, but he sounds exhausted. it’s too late now, but for once, he does not sound thrilled about being an actual supervillain. “you know— if it were just me, i wouldn’t mind dying right now.” his words go unsaid: his family. she understands, deep down. 

“same,” she says. “i can’t stop you.”

“i’m sorry.”

“i know.”

her mouth tastes bitter as he leaves. 

 

there’s a couple of coincidences, then. 

there’s the spider-man gala (by  _ kingpin  _ — the irony doesn’t miss her), the whole ordeal she’s forced to attend as peter’s de facto spokesperson. 

there’s a guy dressed as spider-man at the gala. this shouldn’t be a surprise. but he stops by when she asks for bread and cries, and there’s something about the way he talks, the way his coworkers have to drag him back.

then there’s aaron, who, if anything, she expected fully suited, not dressed up for the gala, and the little blur of air that follows him. she crosses him on her way to the bathroom, crashing against the invisible  _ something.  _ it’s a kid. it’s a  _ spider-kid. _

it’s too much of a coincidence. 

“mj,” aaron says. he looks so tired. “i can explain.”

“can you?” mj tries not to sound mad. she is. she is really, really mad. “right now this sounds like a really cruel joke.”

“we’re gonna stop him,” the kid says. she looks at him: he holds himself tall, stupidly proud, and it reminds her so much of peter she stumbles. 

“trust me this one time,” aaron insists. 

mj looks at them. 

breathe, mj. 

“go,” she says. “you better not be tricking me here.”

aaron squeezes her hand and they run off. later, when the dust has settled, she spots the tiny spider-man over the wreckage, talking to a cop, aaron by his side, and she suddenly feels very, very tired. 

“you okay?,” aaron asks her. he’s standing next to her, a hand on her arm, and she’s startled. she must’ve spaced out. 

“just peachy,” she says. 

they don’t say anything else. 

 

the next day, mj visits aaron. they talk, they watch a movie. 

another time, aaron comes over, and they have dinner. 

things are strange, at first. tense. “i think i was jealous of you,” aaron admits then, as they get drunk and think, sitting on aaron’s stairway. “i guess… i was insecure.”

“i get that,” mj says. 

“i’m sorry,” he apologizes. he’s always apologizing, nowadays. 

“he loved you,” she says instead. “you broke his heart. and then he died.”

“i know.”

“he  _ loved  _ you.”

aaron tries to reply, but his words die in the glass of cheap wine and mj doesn’t have it in her to press for an answer. 

miles hangs out with them sometimes and, one night, after a fight with electro, she patches him up. and if she doesn’t tell aaron this, well, that’s none of his business. 

(she daydreams: peter, sitting on her kitchen counter as she stitches back minor wounds. peter, crying when she sets his shoulder back in place. peter, sneaking bits of her stew while she searched for bandages.)

“are you okay?,” miles asks him. she just covered her entire hand in burn relief cream. 

she wipes off her tears with her other hand and smiles at the kid, finishing off his wounds. “yeah,” she tells him. “don’t worry.”

aunt may calls her often. she always calls back. they talk about trivial things. never about peter. it makes mj so mad. 

she’s with aaron and miles in peter’s old hideout when she spots it: a framed photo of them, just graduating high school. 

( _ “we were children,” she’d told aaron once. “we didn’t know any better. it was different.” _ )

she holds it to her chest and doesn’t let it go, and when aaron wraps himself around her, and when miles joins, she doesn’t complain. 

 

one year later, they’re standing on peter’s grave, in silence. miles has gone on ahead with his spider-friends (meeting the other peters had been a surprise, mj can at least say: at least, gwen and peni were understanding of her shock), leaving flowers and drawings on the tombstone. 

aaron holds her close. it’s strange. she’d never expected this calmness, not when facing this place again. not with aaron, whom she’d once hated. 

how the tables have turned. 

they walk towards peter, kneel down, place a cupcake and light the candle. and there, under the light snowfall, they take in a deep breath and sing:

“ _ happy birthday to you… _ ”

**Author's Note:**

> im writing this LONG as FUCK thing with my boys pete and miles and ROADTRIP BABY yell at me so i finish it!! please!!!! ive been procastinating...


End file.
